A different kind of disaster movie
What I really liked about this movie is that compared to most it's relatively low stakes. It's not humanity vs the end of the world, it's about saving one town. It was nice to see that the only 'villain' of the story is nature. There's no evil capitalist putting money ahead of people's lives. Instead everyone comes together to do what they can to help regardless of the financial impact. It's refreshing to see when the news seems to be full of people being selfish at the moment.The acting was fantastic, especially Zhu Yilong, Huang Zhizhong and Chen Shu.
This movie isn't going to be a life-altering experience but for the genre I found it very enjoyable.
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A typical disaster movie (but that's not a bad thing!)
I was lucky enough to see this at an actual cinema here in the UK, and I'm glad I did.It had everything you expect from a disaster movie, including grand heroic gestures, last-minute relationship reconciliations, and a rousing speech to convince a group of people to do the right thing. It also had some great acting from Zhu Yilong (although that was also to be expected) and just enough actual peril to keep me questioning whether he would survive or not.
Some of the plot aspects were a little formulaic, but that's pretty much the genre. Not a lot of re-watch value once you know how it's going to end though.
Overall, it was a fun watch and was great to be able to see a Chinese movie on the big screen.
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Had higher expectations
I wish I could give this movie a higher rating but for me this story felt flat. Sure, the overall action is thrilling but at the same time so unrealistic for me that I couldn't help but wonder how it would work out in real life. I won't go into detail but some things the protagonists did seemed quite impossible.Also the clichés:
- a powerful speech to let everyone know how grave the situation is, check
- heroic acts, check
- drama with lots of crying, check
I really love Zhu Yi Long's acting and he did well, same for the overall cast. It was the writing that just didn't work for me.
I almost liked the movie for one hour, then they ruined it with a foreseeable event that just left me disappointed.
If you don't care about the story though, go watch it for the landscape shots because those are really breathtakingly beautiful.
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Disaster on a fast track
I decided to watch this Chinese disaster movie packed into two hours. I got lost with the earthquake/crumbling mountainside/typhoon plot. A decent production with very good CGI! The actors did a very good job. They didn't determine if ten years of drilling the tunnel in the mountain weakened the terrain, but they did mention an earthquake in the Indian Ocean as being the trigger of the local earthquake. The funniest line was when one of the workers went up to Ms Ding and said a storm (...typhoon?) was imminent, any second now. Low and behold, the storm hit the area, a second later. Really? The movie was on the fast track, no planning and execution, just execution. Othewise, the movie would be three hours long.Zhu Yilong was very good in a non-drama role. I liked his father. The actors/characters were supporting the earthquake and collapsing mountains.
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